Posted on 06/17/2008 5:42:08 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko
In the name of "defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt" the Associated Press is now selling "quotation licenses" that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words. The licensing system exhorts you to snitch on people who publish without paying the blood-money, offering up to $1 million in reward money (they also think that "fair use" -- the right to copy without permission -- means "Contact the owner of the work to be sure you are covered under fair use.").It gets better! If you pay to quote the AP, but you offend the AP in so doing, the AP "reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time if Publisher or its agents finds Your use of the licensed Content to be offensive and/or damaging to Publisher's reputation."
Over on Making Light, Patrick Nielsen Hayden nails it:
The New York Times, an AP member organization, refers to this as an attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt. I suggest its better described as yet another attempt by a big media company to replace the established legal and social order with with a system of private law (the very definition of the word privilege) in which a few private organizations get to dictate to the rest of society what the rules will be. See also Virgin Media claiming the right to dictate to private citizens in Britain how theyre allowed to configure their home routers, or the new copyright bill being introduced in Canada, under which the international entertainment industry, rather than democratically-accountable representatives of the Canadian people, will get to define what does and doesnt amount to proscribed circumvention. Hey, why have laws? Lets just ask established businesses what kinds of behaviors they find inconvenient, and then send the police around to shut those behaviors down. Imagine the effort well save.
Welcome to a world in which you wont be able to effectively criticize the press, because youll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish.
Welcome to a world in which you wont own any of your technology or your music or your books, because ensuring that someone makes their profit margins will justify depriving you of the even the most basic, commonsensical rights in your personal, hand-level household goods.
The people pushing for this stuff are not well-meaning, and they are not interested in making life better for artists, writers, or any other kind of individual creators. They are would-be aristocrats who fully intend to return us to a society of orders and classes, and theyre using so-called intellectual property law as a tool with which to do it. Whether or not you have ever personally taped a TV show or written a blog post, if you think youre going to wind up on top in the sort of world these people are working to build, you are out of your mind.
Wonder what they charge for one of their Photoshopped photos?
It can't be long now.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs just had #205 issue of the weekly digest deleted because of AP sources. I haven’t checked the topics themselves, but gather they’ve all been deleted?
What goes and what stays?
Child Protective Services CPS is at it again !!!!!
Family ripped apart on their lies
ripoffreport
Posted on 06/19/2008 1:28:56 PM PDT by big black dog
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2033504/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2033504/posts?page=15#15
DNC Now Wants Michigan Caucus
AP via ClickOnDetroit | Feb. 07, 2008 | Staff
Posted on 02/07/2008 5:24:42 PM PST by jdm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966800/posts
Bush says troop cutbacks might stop
(AP says bias journalist cutbacks will never happen)
Yahoo | 1/12/2008 | TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
Posted on 01/12/2008 11:55:09 AM PST by tobyhill
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1952662/posts
AP: Giuliani Firm Lobbied for Clients
(CONFLICT: 1000’s of unnamed clients want policy changes)
NY Post | May 15, 2007 | SHARON THEIMER and DEVLIN BARRETT © 2007 AP. All rights reserved
Posted on 05/15/2007 5:50:15 AM PDT by Liz
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1833794/posts
Rutgers ranked in new AP poll
[Ohio State remains No. 1, followed by Auburn and USC]
Baltimore Sun | September 24, 2006, 3:42 PM EDT | Ralph D. Russo
Posted on 09/25/2006 5:42:06 PM PDT by indcons
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1708203/posts
Welcome Home Troops Photos
Defend America | 5-3-03 | N/A Various
Posted on 05/03/2003 1:58:22 PM PDT by JustPiper
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/905245/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/905245/posts?page=8#8
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.